Population structuring of Channa striata from Indian waters using control region of mtDNA

Striped snakehead (Channa striata) is a freshwater species of early Miocene period belonging to family Channidae. The genetic variability of the snakehead populations in India was not well known. Present study was undertaken using 149 sequences of control region of mitochondrial DNA from seven geographically distinct populations of Indian water, which resulted in 46 haplotypes with 137 variable nucleotide sites (60 singletons and 77 parsimony informative) and the nucleotide frequencies was: A = 33.0, T = 28.1, G = 15.4, and C = 23.5%. The presence of low-frequency of younger haplotypes with a large number of singletons indicates the absence of dominant haplotype. Hierarchical AMOVA showed highly significant genetic differentiation (FST = 0.56, p C. striata in Indian waters is rejected.